Honestly, that is just not true. I could not have done

my work better. I am an excellent MT, but was devoured by my devious jealous coworkers, ignored by the incompetent supervisors, and had the proverbial bait and switch played on me big time once I got on production. I was trusting and got the short end of the stick. Please don't be so broad in your assesment of things. I tried to mind my business and transcribe, but that didn't work. I have heard identical stories from several MTs I have been lucky enough to meet on this board. Be wise, my friend.

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needs a really flexible schedule or likes to jump on and off, TransHealth is probably not the company for them. I am not saying that they are mean but I think that if someone has a lot going on in their life on a personal level there isn't going to be a lot of accommodation for that.

Like I said before, I have never QA'd below a 99.2 and this 98.9 score is absolutely killing me to begin with. Then to be put on full QA for the first time in my life after being taken off (never even had this as a newbie). I seriously cried.

I get that some of the mistakes that I made were stupid, but like you said, I am still maintaining their quality standard stated in my contract, so I don't understand. My errors were .25 and .50 point errors. So nothing terribly significant. I am not making excuses for myself and maybe I deserved to be threatened, but maybe their standards should be stated differently.

It wasn't a harsh e-mail. It is just the point. Getting your job threatened really scares the crap out of you. Especially when you are still doing okay by the standards of a lot of companies.

I would honestly like to know what you consider a
very high line rate. Your post is whatever it is - bottom line is - what do you consider a very high line rate? I, too, am a veteran of this field - have spent my entire adult life perfecting my skills - Not bragging, just factual, I know just about anything and everything one could need to know in the medical field, including drugs and dosages, etc. I can diagnosis any patient right along with the doctor - in fact, that's one of the few things that keeps me from dying of boredom some days - diagnosing in my mind as I transcribe symptoms, lab values, etc. I am an MT and also a QA specialist - My work is flawless, as is my work history as far as companies, etc. I can type anything and everything, and I love ESLs. I always pass testing with flying colors, having even been told that I was the only MT who ever got some obscure term on a transcription test - I am polite on interviews, and have been offered a job every single time I have ever applied to a company. Yet the average cents per line rate that I have been offered, even with 25 years of incredible experience under my belt, is 8 to 9 cpl, and the 9 cpl was only once as an IC. I have never ever gotten any company to offer me more than that, and only make 10 cpl at my current employer after getting tiny little .0025 cpl raises over 10 years. Years ago full time I made $80K and up, and part time when my kids were little I made $40K for a few hours a day. Now I run in the low $30K range working my behind off 6 to 7 days a week, 8+ hours a day. Its not me - I'm faster than I ever was and have more knowledge than I need. Again, what do you consider a high line rate, and where are these companies? Please answer, as it really should not be a guarded secret if you are honestly looking to help the industry.
Honestly, I'm not sure
But I would say if you haven't heard back in 4 or 5 days, it would probably be okay to call and check the status of your application. Better to do that than get lost in the shuffle.
Honestly? sm
If you have been around 16 years you are too sharp for their games and they just wanted to say no to you before you figured them out and said no to them. JMHO
Honestly, I do not know. sm

This would definitely be a tech question but SpeedType is a great program. You can also use the AutoCorrect feature of Word. I actually use both. I use the AutoCorrect for my short entries and then my operative reports and longer stuff, I use SpeedType. It all depends on the MTs preference though.

Not to pry, but since your version doesn't have Expanders already built-in did Transcend help with the expense of getting InstantText? If I gotta pay for it myself I'll have to save up for it
Honestly, you should have done (sm)
your homework before selecting a name for your company. The word Heartland is not carelessly tossed around on this site. The company Heartland (not your company) has burned a lot of MTs. Yes, I think you should spend the $500+ to change your company name.
Honestly...
Good luck getting any work! I'm on 5 different accounts and haven't met quota for nearly a year! The platform is very easy, it's getting the work that is very hard.
honestly just being there for him is a lot even if ..
you arent there holding his hand. Just tell him if he needs anything just to come to you whether it is a hug or not. I would still try to work as much and just take more breaks to check on him and hug him.

Really all you can do.

I honestly don't know, but I don't do ER . -sm
You could probably call the company or email them and ask... since they have quite a lot of different hospitals.
I have been both and honestly, even though
you have the flexibility of a 24-hour turnaround, which is what I believe MDI is, I would stay an employee. Health insurance is expensive for one thing. Plus, not sure if you have it now being an employee, but you also have to consider the other benefit of paid time off/vacation time. You will get no paid time off as an IC or SE. You are responsible for more of the tax burden, but as an SE you are not required to pay self-employment tax. Or, at least I don't think you do. I believe I read on the IRS website that as a SE you are not required to pay self-employment tax. Unless you are absolutely hating your current job I would really think twice (or thrice) about switching.
I honestly don't know what goes on
This morning when I signed on there seemed to be a good bit of work. For the first time in a long time I was typing discharge summaries from yesterday!! Then all of the sudden my primary account dried up in a matter of like 10 minutes. I don't really understand how one minute I'm typing work from yesterday at around 2:00 p.m. and then POOF it is all caught up. Can anyone else offer any insight on this issue? I'm cornfused.
I honestly don't know.....
but if any from my accounts have left, you can't tell. I don't understand where the work has gone. It has been low to nil and then this past Friday, there was a ton of work. Of course, may day off. I'm currently looking for something else. After reading all the posts, I'm definitely going to have a backup job.
Glad that's true for you for 8 years. Not true for many. I love the company, but I do run out of
as do many others. Wish I were as fortunate as you.
I actually don't doubt it. Honestly. But still says
of sending medical records to countries with often much lower standards than ours in those terms, and who, if you ever did need to try to prosecute them or pursue them for a breach of privacy, would likely be beyond the long arm of the law ... or at least amazingly incredibly difficult to get cooperation from.
I honestly had the best job in the world one day and no job the next sm
and I found out I had no job via a non-personalized group form email saying Medware is reorganizing, if you have received this email we have eliminated your position, effective 2 days from now, please feel free to call us if you have any questions

think that we can earn a living at 6-7/cpl?!!! What are they thinking? Could they earn a living making that low a rate? They place their ads on various boards and then in capital letters state that they DO NOT HIRE OFFSHORE, but they are paying as if they do!! For that kind of money, I hope that they get what they pay for!!

The company offered to pay you after 1 week's worth of work. You should be grateful. They even offered to wire transfer the money to you, yet you are complaining about *the bank's fee*. I surely hope the name you posted is not your real name. If it is, everyone will now know your true nature.

Honestly, I think you're doing MDI a
disservice by carrying on. Your reviews really are backfiring. They don't mess around with stuff like this at MDI, so good luck. Its getting old.
Honestly, don't you think any company would be
better than the Q? I was so afraid and now could kick myself that I let myself work there for so long struggling financially and really feeling sick and depressed daily. Check the job seeker's board and make lots of calls, you will be amazed how you feel when you get out of that awful place!!! By the way, I've heard many good things about Landmark and the no ASR is a definite plus! Good luck to you, and remember that you are not a prisoner!!!
It honestly sucks... but

you are going to have to learn it. At some point, the companies that do not do it will be forced to because these other companies can offer a lower rate.

I hate it too. But there are things you can do to build speed and earn close to what you were. Give it time, first of all, but ask for help... get a mentor, learn that program inside and out. It has become part of our job description.

I do about 2.5 times as much editing as I do straight transcription (and I'm NOT slow at transcription, I'm quite fast). Therefore, I make a bit more editing than I do with straight transcription.

I'd like to point out, however, that I'm on an overall excellent account with very good dictators. The only time I encounter the 'it would be quicker to just retype it' is if the dictator has a bad/staticky/muffled connection and the VR can't recognize exactly what is being dictated.

I can see where it's not for everyone but I always thought it would be interesting to be a book editor; perhaps my love of VR stems from that early-in-life career goal, lol!
You honestly never saw this coming?
Seriously, in all your years of MT work and witnessing the inception of VR, you honestly remained in denial that this day would come?

VR does not invite lawsuits unless the MT is asleep at the wheel. It's no different than standard transcription regarding the finished product that goes into the patient's chart. If you're a good MT and carefully proofreading as you edit, there's no excuse for something potentially life-threatening to the patient to go into their permanent medical record. The fault is with the MT, not the VR system.

My account is 95% VR on Escription, and I love it. I took no cut in pay; I doubled my production on VR and bring home an almost identical amount as I did doing straight transcription, without the exacerbation of carpal tunnel symptoms.

Feel free to remain closed-minded and sign up for disability; however, if it's a cut in pay you're concerned about, having you considered how much of a cut you'd take going on disabiity versus doing VR work?

I love TT and I love VR. It's a perfect match for me. The other MTSOs that do not implement VR as part of their services will slowly find themselves being forced out of the business.

It's the 21st century, ladies. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Honestly, you have misunderstood something
I have no employees, beloved or otherwise. I just think that this person, whoever he or she is, has turned this whole thing into an online version of the Jerry Springer show. It belittles the dignity of our profession to settle disagreements in the public square. If she didn't like her place of employment, there are plenty of others out there. And integrity demands that she handle internal matters internally, that is, with whomever she feels wronged her. The people on this board have no power whatsoever to help her. I truly hope she can find another position that meets her needs. Perhaps if she spent as much time looking for one as she has slinging the hash here, she would find something good for herself. I hope she does, and can.
I am not an MTSO, but honestly it is none of your

business what they charge. Your paycheck isn't going to get bigger because you know how much they make. You also don't know figures such as rent, phone bill, worker's comp, equipment, software, unemployment taxes, etc. they pay. Sure they are making a profit, but not like they used to, or the small to medium-sized companies wouldn't be selling out to companies like MQ.

You also don't have to be concerned with making sure you have coverage for the work, making sure you keep up with all the government mandates, making sure you meet payroll, soliciting new accounts when you lose one, etc.

Difference? Honestly, I don't know!
I can only say again that I am a TRS transplant, we continue to work our same accounts as before the merger, and our previous recruiter apparent did not over-hire.... Usually, we have so much work we can do extra if we want or need to. Only the last couple of days my team has actually run out of work. I can't even remember the last time that happened. (Might have been Christmas.) I wonder if a bunch of the docs are taking last-minute summer vacations...? (Even with that, though, there are still 3 days until the end of the pay period, and even with the anemic workload I have already passed the $900 mark.)

Of course, accounts come and go; one of the old TRS accounts went to point-and-click EMR (at least they didn't go overseas) so a whole lot of MTs had to be shuffled around....

If the people who don't have enough work are doing anything 'wrong' (and I have no knowledge one way or the other of this) it could be that they're not yelling loud enough....? Or in the right places? Again I really don't know.

I have been told by three different 'suits' at Transcend that anyone with not enough work needs to talk to their supervisor, and if their supervisor isn't doing enough to help, then they need to chew their way higher. Because there are accounts out there with not enough coverage, and in fact the company often has to pay TAT penalties because the work isn't getting done on time. Not being a 'suit' myself, I have no direct knowledge of this and am only repeating what I have been told.

Now, if my own accounts ever drop off and I'm not getting enough work, I will talk to my supervisor first, and if that doesn't work, I know people I can call.... And I am willing to work any account, any work type, any platform (although I really, really do prefer straight typing, because I'm good at it and I'm very fast). And I'll keep chewing my way up the ladder until I get as much work as I need.

And if after taking all of those steps (including going straight to the CEO if I have to, and don't think I wouldn't do that!) I still can't make a living, then and only then will I start believing that Transcend is not the company I think it is after all....

So what's the difference? Again, I really don't know....

I do know that at least one of the 'suits' has been trying to contact some of the people who are posting here that they don't have enough work. I wish someone who has been contacted would post and let us know how that went, and if it helped them. Also, Debbie Marlow (who posted her e-mail address here) told me that anybody who comes to her for anything at all will likely get put to work, whether what was what they wanted or not, 'cause she always needs people.... Also, yesterday for a while there was a post from Laurie Leiker, who is a regional manager, but the post vanished later in the day. She had also posted her e-mail address in that post with the invitation for anyone with concerns to contact her directly.

The one other difference I can think of is that I am very, very fast (at least, I am when I put my head down and go for it, and I'm not playing around on the boards!). So I may be able to make up a certain amount of ground just by sheer volume and speed.... How did I get so fast? With decades of doctors screaming down your back that they need their reports yesterday, nevermind that they didn't even dictate them until today, and somewhere back then I coined my favorite job description:

'There are only two kinds of medical transcriptionists, the quick and the dead. If you're not quick, you're dead!'

Now, having said that, I had better get back to work!
Since you are answering honestly, I am
asking honestly why your company has to deal with offshore support/upload team. I have never really heard an honest answer from a company. Is the bottom line price? I am very interested in honestly knowing what goes on behind the doors of these MTSOs. Thanks for your honesty.
It really honestly proves to me

waste their time doing what someone making an average of 15 dollars an hour doing; it's just below this physician to do his own documentation.

Sorry, but that is evolution. I guess he'd also not be bothered emptying his own trash can either. His comment of spending his time doing a task that someone else can do it really cheap does not mean he valued his transcriptionist, per se. It just simply means he'd rather spend his time doing something else.

what is your point in making someone feel worse... to make yourself look better adjusted somehow? everybody, including you, has had or will have a low point in this profession.. it seems this is a new concept for you.... and at your age, you should already understand this... if you didn't, then here's your clue. :)
I honestly don't care what you think. Every heard of somebody being
How bout that, Steph?
I honestly think you're being condescending and
rude about the comfy jammies statement. This career and its earning implications is so more vast than women wanting to stay home in their jammies. Please don't be so ignorant. Of course the MTSOs played on our desire to stay home and raise our families, but lots of other factors played into our pay rates plummeting - offshoring and competition among the big nationals. I've been in this career, working from home, my entire adult life, nearly 27 years now, and my choices were not based on my desire to - stay home in my jammies - as you succinctly put it. Even now as I look at new companies - the bottom line average offer is 8 cpl - period I have great credentials and experiences, but that is it. Will I sacrifice my entire life style for 27 years or accept the 8 cpl eventually? I'll not toss my lifestyle to the wind - my family is too important to me. Not my jammies...
I am working on it - haven't run out yet- honestly
nmThat is honestly a silly comment now on top of the

other mess. You do it, not the cents per line? Honestly, its just fact that if one were making 10 cpl versus 7 cpl there would be a difference. This is too weird.

I have transcribed much, MUCH worse ESL than what was sampled on their test. When they asked me what percentage of ESL I had transcribed for in an average work day, I told them 20% or less and that's when they said that their work involved 80% ESL. But man, that 20% that I got at my former job was some of the worst on the planet, I swear!

would be no need to come here. Leaving it at the end of the day Friday as they did didn't help things either. I don't know why they can't just send us all a check overnight. They haven't blamed the situation on the payroll company and it seems like there would be something in the contract that would make provisions if they are in error, or they would at least be issuing a statement. Since the payroll numbers were already done, why not just cut everyone a check and they could sort out the details later. Because I'm not broke if the promised compensation happens it would be worth it to me to have my check late, but at this point are we are wanting is our hard-earned paychecks.

The fact that there was an issue last pay period, even if just a 1-day delay doesn't help things. I would have been on someone's rear end 24/7 to make sure things went smoothly this pay period.

Communication is the key and the company has dropped the ball.

I tested yesterday too and can honestly say it was the most
professional test I have ever taken in the 15 years I have been doing this work. I was really impressed. I thought it was a difficult test also - and timed which I have not done before - that was a little nerve-wracking!
Honestly, the lack of communication is nothing new but
there is usually work. It could be that they have not assigned a queue of worktypes for you if your still in training. I'm just guessing here. I think the most frustrating thing for me is the lack of response to emails. I don't care if I am asking if the sky is blue, I expect someone...anyone.... to answer me. I always attach copies to multiple team leaders hoping one or all of them will answer, and NOTHING.. I'm not sure what their problem was/is. I started on the MDI side and once they merged with Transcend communication went down the tubes. My suggestion is that you attempt to contact your lead and also put copies to all of the other team leads and hope someone will answer. I would even tell them your discouraged and rethinking your decision. Maybe, that will light a fire under them, but I would definitely question them about the work load. I rarely run out but then again I work on 3-4 different accounts so I can hop around when one runs out. Good luck. My days there are numbered.
honestly, I would made the call and...sm
just READ THEM OFF. I cannot even stress how PATHETIC this whole process became.

If for some reason you decide to stay, you would probably start work each day with a very bad feeling wondering what would happen each day. NOT WORTH IT. Make it easier on yourself. READ THEM OFF and move on.
Honestly I'd say to heck to Meditech and

look for something else. You'll never make any money off it, especially if you can't type in Word.

I know that isn't what you were asking, but it will be like beating your head against a brick wall.

I honestly couldn't deal with the pay.....
Although, I would love the paid holidays and such, just no way could I personally work for $13.50 per hour. I don't really have to work weekends or holidays now, only if I choose, but I would choose that over that low pay. If I am having a BAD typing day, such as not having a good attention span, hard dictators or whatever, I make at least $20 bucks an hour and usually between $35 and $50 an hour. I guess it just depends on how much you need to live on and if the weekends/holidays are worth the such small amount of money.
I honestly don't think most people care
Most health care providers don't care who is typing it as long as they can get it cheap. I don't think most people care either as long as it doesn't impact them in a financial sense.

So let's say you get all the ICs to download the hospital's platform. Fine. Now who is going to QA their work? Who is going to manage the work flow and the staffing so work is done consistently and on time? Hospitals don't want to deal with that. They want the MTSOs to handle it and do it for as cheap as possible.
Not necessarily true. That is not a true test of skill.
Do you know how many people get others to take tests for them? It happens and it happens more often than you might think. The only skill that shows anyway is that you can do it.

We are actually more than a transcriptionist. We are specialists in our field and we are supposed to know some things regarding anatomy and physiology as a working base. That's how we can judge if a physician dictates something in accurately and many do because they can't pronounce or just are not thinking. That's why our skills of basic knowledge come into play and that means basic knowledge of body parts. If our job was just to sit there and type without thinking about what we are transcribing, then all patients are in trouble and this is just based on what I see as a QA person.

It's more than just knowing how to transcribe and some of the companies have discovered how to know what your basic knowledge is based on what you have picked up with your experience by utilizing your references etc. Hopefully that utilization of your references has taught you something that does stick in your head.

Beliefs like yours are just so far off base. You have to know what you are doing. It's not just about being able to listen and type. Base knowledge is a very important thing and the services have to find a way to know that knowledge base that is there in your head.

Honestly, MQ is a great place to work!
I did work for Spheris before they were called EDIX, and I've worked for a couple of other nationals and MQ is by far the best! The grass isn't greener on the other side, believe me. MQ is the most advanced technilogically. If you don't want to feel like you are going backwards with technology, go give MQ a try. I work out of the Dallas office and the communication with my supervisor, other supervisors, upper management, other co-workers...is EXCELLENT. I love it. I would say at least give it a try before listening and taking the advice of anyone reporting a bad experience. All offices are not the same.